Communication modules for unidirectional data communication are widely known as status displays, for example, for computer systems, notebooks, pocket PCs, mobile telephones, or manifold other devices, which display a battery status or a reception strength during operation of the devices, for example. In the status displays which are typically currently used, LEDs are frequently used in order to identify a status, particularly to identify whether a device is turned on or off. Thus, a red LED may display a standby mode and a green LED may display an operating mode, for example.
The current status displays are distinguished in that the device in which the status display is operated relays system data of the device to display a status at the status display.
Status displays which have a display unit, such as a display, are capable of displaying alphanumeric and also graphic data. Transmission of system data for display on the display is typically performed in real time, so that the data is processed by at least one processor of the device and/or computer system and the processed data must be forwarded to the display. Therefore, this processor is loaded with the handling of the user interface, in this case the display unit, in addition to its tasks in regard to data processing. Intelligent status displays in particular lead to a high system load of the computer system.
Until now, status displays have therefore merely been used to display predefined system information. There is no possibility of using them as input devices which allow active configuration and display of the system parameters which may be performed by the user at any arbitrary time.